Groups to help growing ranks of homeless young people

Resident John Gordon washes dishes in the kitchen at Angel Reach, a home in Conroe that houses youth that have aged out of foster care and have no home.

Resident John Gordon washes dishes in the kitchen at Angel Reach, a...

As the Montgomery County teen rolled up the sleeves of his loose, black-and-red plaid shirt, he revealed little red dots scattered across his forearms - bug bites from sleeping outside.

A year ago, when the young man - Robert - turned 18 and became an adult, he could no longer live in foster care and suddenly became homeless. Now he lives in an empty office building in Conroe - without a job, car or steady source of food. One of the worst parts, he says, is the weather.

"Oh my God, the heat," said Robert, whose last name is being withheld to protect his identity in high school, in which he is currently enrolled.

Montgomery County is finding an increasing number of young people like Robert who are either homeless or at risk of being without shelter as they age out of foster care. While some say the actual number of homeless teens is growing, others say the uptick can be attributed to the county finally getting better at finding and communicating with young people and children who are homeless.

Call for coordination

Either way, groups are stepping up their efforts to help this population. Three Montgomery County nonprofit organizations are starting to pool their counseling, housing and employment-support services together for the growing number of homeless young people in the county after receiving a three-year $530,000 community impact grant from United Way last month.

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"Until this time, all of our funding has been around individual agencies, so the big shift in why this is possible is we said collaborations are going to be the right way to go in the future," said Julie Martineau, president of Montgomery County United Way. "If we are really going to get our hands around the number of kids and the things that are going on in our community, we have got to get groups working on that together."

The organizations - Angel Reach, CASA Child Advocates of Montgomery County and Montgomery County Youth Services - currently provide counseling and shelter services to at-risk youth, but each organization has its unique strengths, Martineau said.

Angel Reach works with those who have aged out of the foster care system and provides housing and counseling, and Montgomery County Youth Services can provide short-term shelter and counseling services for those ages 10 to 17. CASA advocates for children in the court system and has strong outreach abilities, Martineau said.

"We can get further and work with more kids when our agencies are working in a collaboration as opposed to by themselves," she said.

The grant's first year will focus on research to identify how many youth - which the groups consider up to age 24 - are homeless and at-risk of being homeless in the county and what services are most needed. John Bracken, executive director of County Youth Services, said getting an accurate count is very difficult because children often don't want to be put into the system.

"Getting at the true number is challenging," Bracken said.

Increase in demand

While an exact number of homeless young people and children has not been determined - many are staying on others' couches or camping out in the woods - groups like Angel Reach and Montgomery County Youth Services have seen a steep increase in demand for their services, Martineau said.

Sandra Carpenter, president of Angel Reach, said her shelter is full and there is a three-week waiting list for boys and a one-month waiting list for girls.

Overall, homelessness is rising in the county, according to an estimate from the Texas Homeless Network earlier this year. The group estimated the number of homeless persons in the county was 985 based on an extrapolation of a one-day survey earlier this year, up from 713 last year. The average age in a 2014 count was 28, down from 38 the year before.

Growing suburban poverty is part of a national trend, according to the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. Houston ranked among the top 10 metropolitan areas where suburban poverty grew most rapidly in the 2000s.

In the second and third years, the grant will pay for case managers, shelter staff and other administrative personnel to coordinate and ramp up the organizations' services, ranging from helping individuals get a driver's license to assisting with family issues and providing job training and financing.

Martineau said the success of the grant will be measured by several factors, such as the number of young people that are employed, enrolled in college, and covered by health insurance at the end of the grant period.

Need for publicity

The effort is currently in its infancy, said program manager Janet Kasper, and a big push to publicize the initiative has not yet happened. The program is currently being run out of a one-story house in Conroe, and the only other staff member is a case manager.

In one room, computers will be placed on two empty desks, so anyone who drops in will be able to get help applying for jobs or polishing their resume. The house will have some food and a full bath open to clients, in addition to a closet with some clothes.

So far, the initiative has 26 clients, 20 of whom have been referred from Angel Reach, Kasper said. But six people have independently found the program, including one referred from Klein Independent School District, who Kasper set up at the Salvation Army shelter in Conroe.

"Some of them just came, knocked on the door, heard that we were there," Kasper said.

Robert said he has submitted job applications to Wal Mart, Dairy Queen and Home Depot. Eventually, he said, he hopes to buy a car and live in it until he can get an apartment, but for now he's focusing on finishing school and getting a job.